Jacob Lawrence

New York in Transit I/II

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1917, Jacob Lawrence emerged as
one of America's leading figurative artists and the first to document
the history of African Americans through widely-viewed and influential
artworks. Lawrence and his family moved to Harlem in 1924, where he
experienced the vibrancy of black intellectual, cultural, and artistic
life in what was seen as the Harlem Renaissance. He became well
known at the young age of 21 for his "Toussant L'Ouverture Series"
(1937), a 41-painting collection that depicts the successful Haitian
slave rebellion. At the age of 24, he became the first African
American whose work was included in the permanent collection of the
New York Museum of Modern Art.

Man on a Scaffold

Lawrence considered himself both an artist and educator and used his
art to tell stories about black history -- stories that were
overlooked in the typical "American History" taught in schools. For
example, Lawrence produced a 40-panel series on "The Life of Harriet
Tubman" (1940), who in the 1800s helped hundreds of slaves find
passage to freedom in the North through the Underground Railroad. His
60-painting "Migration Series" (1941) traces the mass movement of
African Americans from the South to the North following World War I.
These series use both images and detailed titles to create a
narrative history of the event.

In 1970, Lawrence and his wife, painter Gwendolyn Knight, moved to
Seattle when Lawrence accepted an appointment as Professor in the
School of Art at the University of Washington. He retired in 1980 and
continued to serve as Emeritus Professor until his death in 2000 at
the age of 83.

The 6th floor of the Allen Center exhibits a spectacular two-piece
Jacob Lawrence print -- New York in Transit. Lawrence based this
1998 screen print on his design for the 36-foot-long mosaic mural of
that name in the Times Square and 42nd Street Subway Station in New
York City. Due to the strong 6th floor lighting that could harm the
bright colors in the print, we obtained permission to create a
2x-scale photo reproduction, which is displayed outside of the Gates
Commons. The original print is on loan to the Henry Art Gallery.

Finally, we are extremely excited to have installed in the Allen Center the 22-piece Jacob Lawrence print series The Legend of John Brown, which is on loan from the Washington State Arts Commission. These prints depict the history of abolitionist John Brown, who prior to the civil war, sought to end slavery in the U.S. through an armed uprising. Caught in 1859, Brown was tried and hung for treason. In 1941, Lawrence painted a series of twenty two gouache paintings depicting the John Brown history. He produced print versions in 1977 when the original paintings, held by the Detroit Institute of Art, had become too fragile for display. The prints can be seen from the 2nd and 3rd floor bridges in the Microsoft Atrium of the Allen Center.